Monday, April 19, 2010

This one is based on Odell's Easy St Wheat. Never had it, but sounded like a good American wheat beer. Cleaned out my RAHR, so there's a bit of pils in there, too. Added the last of the cascade whole hops for fun. Original clone recipe in brackets where changes were made.

Mash in to 149°F in 4.25 gallons water and hold for 60m. Batch sparge with 4.25 gallons at 170°F to collect 7 gallons wort. Boil for 60m. Chill and pitch yeast at 68-70°F. Came in at 66% efficiency and right on target.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Neil's having another party and he said "Hey, can I get two batches of beer for a month from now?" A week later I had some time, and was planning to either make two batches in one day using extract, or enlist the help of a fellow hausbraumeister to make one of them. I did end up hosting a friend to brew, but he made his own thing, which is remarkably similar to the beer I was going to assign him. Oh well. Wheat beers are fast, so I should still have time if I get it done before next weekend.

I thought for a party that a wheat beer would go over well. They usually do. No one complains too much about hoppiness or roastiness. But Neil wanted two beers. So he gets an amber, too. It is the prerogative of the brewer to challenge party guests' palates at will. So looking at my recipes for amber ales in assorted beer magazines and books, I came across BYO's Bike Clones issue. Fat Tire? Too bland. Boulder Beer Single Track Copper Ale? Now wait a minute, it's brewed with toasted rye. Not your typical amber. Of course the shop had no flaked rye, so I ended up with rye malt that isn't toasted in the oven because a) I don't think that would work as well as toasted flaked rye and b) I overlooked that tidbit until reviewing the recipe to see how my numbers hit (well is the answer, check the vitals!). I opted for a big pitch of clean ale yeast, and doubled the bittering hops because I was skeptical of the BYO numbers. I also boosted the volume to account for transfer losses on the way to the keg. I get better efficiency than BYO assumes, and all my math worked out to be about where I wanted it. Original recipe differences indicated in brackets below.

Mash in to 156°F in 4 gallons water and hold for 60m. Fly sparge with 4.5 gallons at 170°F to collect 6.5 gallons wort. Add 1 gallon to reach 7.5 gallons total, boil for 90m. Chill and pitch yeast at 68-70°F. Rocked 78% efficiency and came in right on target.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Ok. It's either my scale, or MoreBeer, or both, but every time I weigh my hop pellets out, the total is less than the 2oz I'm paying for. It's possible that there's some moisture loss between these batches, but I don't think it would account for nearly a third of an ounce, especially considering these things are already dried before being pelletized. Anyway. A couple months back I had the Grimbergen Dubbel and decided I needed to brew something in that style. So tasty...

Single infusion mash 154F in 21qts water + salt addition, fly sparge with 14qts at 170F. I ended up just shy of 7 gallons wort at 1.062, making for a whopping 82% efficiency (I even widened the gap on my mill today...just goes to show how much more efficient fly sparging is when you've got the time). Ninety minute boil, add hops at 60m mark. I initially planned to add a little near knockout for some aroma, but once again, I've been shortchanged. The salt is to add a little sodium to the beer to boost the perceived malt flavor. The amount I threw in is around 50ppm in 5 gallons of beer, so it should be enough to make a difference, but not so much that the beer is at all salty.